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GM Wants More Newspaper Advertorials

CEO Rick Wagoner Also Eyes U.S. Papers for Foreign Promotional Deals

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Although it has significantly reduced the amount of advertising space it buys in U.S. newspapers, General Motors Corp. is still interested in discussing advertorial and out-of-country promotional opportunities with publishers, its chief told the Newspaper Association of America conference here.

'Deal of the month'
Speaking at the annual four-day event, held in Manhattan's Marriott Marquis, GM Chairman-CEO Rick Wagoner told the audience of print media executives that because GM vehicles are "no longer on sale all the time," the company did not need to constantly buy newspaper ads announcing "the deal of the month."

Mr. Wagoner, who has headed GM since 2002 and overseen massive cuts in the company's workforce and U.S. manufacturing facilities, went on to say that "one area where we're beginning to do more, and will want to work with newspapers to explore new options in, is advertorials."

Foreign promotional deals
He said GM was also interested in working with U.S. newspaper publishers in ways that crossed national borders. "Some of you own foreign-language newspapers that may have links to papers in other countries," he told attendees. "Hispanic papers with links to South American or the Caribbean, for example. Others, I'm sure, have business or editorial connections with foreign newspapers that we at GM probably have no idea about."

As a second advertising imperative, Mr. Wagoner said the automaker was searching for new creative ideas. "We're working hard with our agencies on this assignment, of course, but I want to note that we're open to new thinking from everyone in this area," including newspapers.